Mighty Mikes win thriller to advance to MCT boys' basketball final

WEST WINDSOR — It certainly was not the prettiest semifinal in Mercer County Tournament history, but tonight’s much-anticipated Trenton Catholic Academy-Trenton High showdown certainly didn’t lack for drama or entertainment.

After watching an 11-point second-half lead morph into a three-point deficit with 2:23 to play, the Iron Mikes dug deep and strung together one final run to hold off the Tornadoes, 60-59, in front of an overflowing, standing-room-only and electric house at Mercer County Community College.

Fifth-seeded TCA advances to take on the winner of today’s 5:30 p.m. game between second-seeded Pennington and third-seeded Ewing in the final at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Rider University.

“It was a great game,” TCA head coach Fred Falchi said. “It maybe wasn’t well-played, but it was tough and it was clean. The kids were going after it. It was rough; the refs did a good job. There was no chippiness. We were up, (Trenton) battled the whole game, and then they finally took the lead. You think to yourself, ‘Man, how are we going to find a way to come back,’ but we found a way to win.”

TCA led 56-54 with 5:13 to play, but Trenton responded with a 9-0 run over the next 2:50 to grab a 59-56 lead. Naz McCoy had a pair of free throws sandwiched around a Kenar Gulley field goal to start the run and pull Trenton to within two points, 56-54. Trenton’s Shaquan Worthy knotted the game at 56-all — TCA had led the entire game and only once was the game previously tied at 2-2 — and Brandon George hit a free throw with 2:53 to play to give the Tornadoes their first lead, 57-56.

George scored on a perfect pass from Worthy with 2:23 left to put Trenton ahead, 59-56.
“We have a lot of experienced players on our team,” said TCA’s James Wright, who supplied the Iron Mikes with 16 points and 13 rebounds. “Everybody just needed to calm down.”

Syracuse-bound guard Malachi Richardson, who paced the Iron Mikes with 18 points and 14 rebounds, knocked down a pair of free throws to pull TCA back to within a point, 59-58. After a TCA stop on defense — the Iron Mikes befuddled the Tornadoes with a zone early in the game — Richardson drove down the right side of the lane looking to put his team back on top.
The shot just spilled off of the rim, but Wright was there to put back what proved to be the game’s decisive bucket.

“He’s a great kid who will run through a wall for you,” Falchi said of Wright. “It’s great that he had a great night tonight.”

Trenton had possession of the ball down a point with 52.6 seconds to play. The Tornadoes took their time trying to execute the play head coach Greg Grant drew up for them, but ultimately gave TCA the ball back with 29.6 seconds left to play.

Grant wanted his team to foul, just not Richardson or Myles Powell. Twenty seconds melted off of the clock before Trenton could get a foul off, ultimately on Richardson, who missed the front end of a one-and-one.

Worthy secured the rebound, darted down the left side of the court, maneuvering his 5-foot-6 frame through the Iron Mikes’ defense and getting to the hoop. His attempt rolled around the back iron before spilling off into Richardson’s hands.

In an unconventional move, Grant had Worthy guarding Richardson one-on-one all game with Kenar Gulley there to provide help. Richardson netted 12 of his 18 points in the first half, which worked just how Grant had hoped.

“The biggest thing about Shaquan is that he has fight,” Grant said.

“He’s 5-6 and (Malachi’s) 6-6, going to Syracuse; he didn’t light the scoreboard on him, and he played him straight up. That’s that heart. That’s what you have to have, and that’s what we’re about.”

Ultimately what cost Trenton a showing in the MCT final — and its 19-game winning streak coming into the game — was a 12-of-29 showing from the free-throw line.

“You can’t go 12-for-29 from the foul line and miss the lay-ups we missed and expect to win,” Grant said. “And we lost by a point. We outplayed them but foul shots are solo shots. We make them, there’s no telling how many points we win by.”